THE UPPER VALLEY

Walpole, N.H. June 2

Up I-89 to Woodstock, VT, then down I-91 to the Vermont Welcome Center at Guilford to install the new (12^th) edition of Vermont, An Explorer’s Guide! It was interesting to hang out there for a couple of hours and watch who comes in—a whole busload of young Hassids from Brooklyn were there most of the time—all wearing black with wide-brimmed black hats and white shirts. This was their picnic stop enroute to New Hampshire! Where in New Hampshire they didn’t know.

What a relief to get off the highway onto Rt. 63 and wind up along Spofford Lake but I suspect I missed something by not taking the River Road from West Chesterfield up through Westmorland Depot. It’s a glorious day and beautiful here at the Inn at Valley Farms! Jacki suggested that I pick up a bagette and cheese from the Village Grocery Store that’s owned by Burdick’s—which I did and have rarely had a better bagette and Baby Swiss from Boggy Meadow Farm down on River Road was fabulous!!—It just doesn’t get much better than sitting in the sun and looking at the flowers – I took a walk up to the top on the hill—with a view of the Black Angus and chickens—the barns and hills. There’s a sense of expanse and peace here—inside and out. The glass-walled sunporch overlooking the garden with a guest fridge and pantry with tea/coffee and cookies and then all those formal old spaces—the dining room, parlor and living room. Jacki grew up down the road and this was vacant for years, up for sale and there was a threat of a developer wanting it to cut the 105 acres into lots. My room is a classic maple canopy without a canopy and woven cover and the antique dresser is special, elegant lamp. I’m in a chair by the window with the birds trilling and something else (a frog?). Better do some work before I run entirely out of steam!